


How Love and Science Mix

by ProfessorFrankly



Series: Fluff Bingo 2019-2020 [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, For Science!, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-17 23:24:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19964953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessorFrankly/pseuds/ProfessorFrankly
Summary: Harry and his foster brothers decide to make cookies and cheer Wanda Evans Holmes up. Sirius helps.





	How Love and Science Mix

**Author's Note:**

> For the Baking square of Just Write! Fluff Bingo 2019. A oneshot set during the run of The Holmes Factor. You don't have to have read that to make sense of this; just understand that Harry Potter is raised with the Holmes family instead of the Dursley's.

Five-year-old Harry Potter pursed his lips.

Auntie Wanda was sad.

Harry didn’t know why, precisely, but he thought it might have something to do with how Eurus had to go to the hospital for a bit. Just to settle up her potions, she said.

So Harry thought maybe he could do something to cheer Auntie Wanda up. He chewed his lip in concentration.

“What’s got you thinking so hard, Harry?” Mycroft asked as he came into the kitchen to find his young cousin still sitting at the breakfast table and looking a bit solemn.

“Is Auntie Wanda sad?” Harry asked, bluntly.

Mycroft raised a brow. “A bit, yes, but all will be well, Harry.”

“I know, I just was thinking if there was something I could do to help make her feel better,” Harry explained. 

“Ah.” Mycroft, at age 11, had a wealth of experience with his mother, even if helping people feel better wasn’t his first inclination, in general. “Well, what are some of the things that make her smile?”

“Oh!” Harry gave a big smile of his own. “Good idea, Mycroft!” He thought. “She likes flowers. And music. And strawberries. And hugs. And cookies. The big, soft, chocolate chip kind, more than biscuits.”

“Can we find any of those things for her?” Mycroft prompted.

“I can give her a big hug whenever I see her,” Harry promised. “But maybe we could also get some cookies?”

“Hmm,” Mycroft said. “I think we might have chocolate chips. Shall we go see if we can make some?”

“Oh, yes, let’s!”

Wills bounced into the room, crunching on an apple. “What’s go’n on?” 

“We’re going to make Auntie Wanda some cookies!” Harry yelled, excited.

“Oh, can I help? Mummy always says baking is just chemistry, and I love chemistry,” Wills rambled.

“Of course,” Mycroft said, importantly. “Let’s find a recipe, and get the chocolate chips.”

The younger boys searched the small shelf of cookbooks in the kitchen while Mycroft fetched the chocolate chips from the pantry. “Oh, look,” he said, voice a bit muffled from having his head stuck in a closet. “There’s a recipe on the back.”

He held the bag of chips out, and they all peered at the back. Mycroft pursed his lips. “Right, Wills, check if we have eggs and butter. Harry, flour, white and brown sugars, and salt. I’ll look for the bicarbonate of soda and vanilla extract.”

“There’s a box in my room,” Wills called out as he headed for the refrigerator.

“Why is there a box in your room?” Mycroft asked, then rolled his eyes. “Never mind.”

The boys scattered to assemble their ingredients and place them on the broad kitchen table.

Mycroft looked over the assembled goods and nodded briskly. “Right. Well, we have everything. Now we need measuring cups, a big bowl, and perhaps a hand mixer.”

“Yeah, I’ve got measuring cups in my room, too,” Wills said.

Mycroft and Harry looked at him.

“Right, they’re probably not good for food safety,” Wills nodded. “I think Mummy keeps a kitchen set in the cupboard next to the stove, at the very back.”

“Where you can’t reach?” Mycroft smirked as he went to the aforementioned cupboard. 

Wills shrugged. “I haven’t needed them since she got me my own set.”

Harry found the biggest mixing bowl they owned, while Wills went for the hand mixer. They set everything up, and looked back at the recipe.

“It’s chemistry,” Wills said, self-importantly. “So we must be precise.”

“Right,” Mycroft nodded along. “Go on, then, Harry. Put the butter and the sugars in the bowl, and I’ll beat it up.”

Harry carefully measured the butter, and dumped it into the bowl, then measured out the white and brown sugars, and dumped them in, too. Mycroft turned the mixer on to its lowest setting, and began to blend them together. Wills peered into the bowl expectantly. All three maintained strict, scientific silence as they watched the butter and sugars blend into a cohesive, fluffy mass.

“Huh,” Wills said. “It looks as though the granular nature of the sugars broke down the fat in the butter.”

Mycroft nodded, and Harry said, “Obviously.”

They looked over the recipe again. “Vanilla extract and eggs, Harry,” Mycroft said.

Harry measured the extract and dumped it in, and carefully cracked the eggs on the side of the bowl before gently letting the raw egg fall into the batter. He made sure there were no shells in the egg, then stepped back and nodded to Mycroft. “Your turn.”

Mycroft turned the mixer on again, and they watched until the eggs and vanilla just blended into the fatty sugar. He stopped the mixer, and directed Wills to get a rubber scraper to scrape the sides of the bowl so everything was blended together.

“Right,” Mycroft looked at Wills. “What do you think? Blend the dry ingredients together first?”

“Maybe the soda and the salt into part of the flour, and blend in first, to be thoroughly assimilated?” Wills suggested. “I think the flour is just for structural integrity, but the chemicals do need to be mixed in rather well for each finished cookie to bake properly.”

“OK, Harry, get another bowl.”

Harry ran for another mixing bowl, then under his brothers’ watchful eyes, blended half the flour, the soda, and the salt before dumping the lot into the bigger bowl. Mycroft mixed it, then nodded to Harry to add the rest of the flour. He mixed that in, too, then the boys eyed the dough carefully. 

“It’s firm, isn’t it?” Wills said. “Is that right?”

Mycroft shrugged. “We’ve followed the directions. Now all we need to do is add the chips.”

Harry opened the bag and dumped them in. The dough was quite firm at this point, and Mycroft set aside the mixer to use his clean hands to mix it up. “You can help,” he told his brothers, who scurried to re-wash their hands, dry them thoroughly, and get into the bowl with the dough until it was thoroughly mixed.

And then Mycroft realized they had a problem.

“Um, lads, we have an issue,” he said.

Harry looked up. “What?”

“None of us is allowed to touch the stove, upon pain of no privileges for weeks, depending upon the offense,” Mycroft pointed out.

Wills winced. That had shown a lack of foresight on their part.

“Well, we could ask an adult to turn on the stove and handle the actual baking part?” Harry ventured.

“Only who would we ask?” Mycroft asked. “Mummy is resting, and anyway, these are supposed to be a surprise. Father is at work.”

Harry’s eyes lit up. “I’ll call Sirius. He can turn on the stove for us, at any rate, and handle that part.”

Wills pursed his lips. “It’s a good plan.”

“Right,” Mycroft nodded briskly. “Call him, then.”

Harry ran for his communication mirror, and carried it back into the kitchen with him. He addressed the mirror. “Padfoot.”

After a moment, the face of Sirius Black looked out from the mirror. “Hello, pup. Something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Harry said. “But we could use a little help.”

“And who’s ‘we’?”

Harry turned the mirror to show his godfather Wills and Mycroft. “We’re making cookies to cheer Auntie Wanda up and just realized we’re not allowed to touch the stove. Can you come and turn it on for us? And maybe put in and take out the trays? We’ll do the rest of the work. I promise.”

Sirius laughed. “A surprise, is it? Why not? I’ll be there in a pop.”

“Harry out.” Harry set the now dark mirror on the table and looked up. “Shall we at least get out the trays?”

“Yes, let’s,” Mycroft said, and the trio trooped off to the pantry for trays and big spoons.

They’d put the rest of the ingredients away and set the trays up on the table before Sirius rapped on their back door, having apparated into the spot designated it for it in the garden. “How goes it, gentlemen?” 

“Come in, Siri,” Harry said, opening the door and handing the wizard the bag with the recipe still on it. “Please turn the oven on to that temperature.”

Siri grinned and complied, then stood back. The boys worked quickly to prep the first two trays of cookies, then paused, looking at each other. “One at a time, or both together?” Mycroft asked Wills, who gave it some thought. 

“If we do two together, we should swap the positioning of the trays at the half-way point of baking, just to ensure the trays retain equi-distance from the oven sides and bake evenly,” he opined.

Harry looked to Siri, who held up his hands in surrender. “I know nothing about cooking or baking, Pup. Not even the wizard way, so you’re on your own.”

“Let’s go with both,” Harry decided. “It will save time, but let’s also swap them halfway, as Wills suggests.”

They had an accord. Siri loaded the first two trays into the oven, Wills set the timer, and Mycroft and Harry started another two trays, carefully rolling dough off two spoons. When the timer buzzed, Siri swapped the position of the trays under Wills’ watchful eye, and then Wills reset the timer. “Oh!” he called. “We need somewhere to cool these!”

The trio scrambled to find the cooling racks and set them up on the side of the kitchen table opposite the assembly station, managing the task just in time for Wills’ timer to buzz again. Siri stepped up, pulled the trays out, and set them over on the cooling racks before turning to the next two trays. He slid those inside, Wills set the timer, and Mycroft grabbed a hot mitt and a cookie-lifter from a drawer, carefully sliding the hot cookies from the tray to rest directly on the cooling rack.

Harry watched intently, then asked, “If we assemble more dough on hot trays, will they cook before they get into the oven?”

All activity stopped. “I would think so, Harry,” Mycroft said, hesitantly, before simply setting the hot tray on the heavy wood table. “Let’s find out.”

“We’ll need a control,” Wills pointed out.

Siri raised an eyebrow as the trio turned to look at him. “What can I do for you, gentlemen?”

“Can you please cool one tray so that it’s room temperature?” Harry asked. “The other will stay hot. We’ll assemble the cookies and see what differences happen.”

Siri nodded, drawing his wand to cool one of the hot trays. “There you are,” he said. “Carry on.”

Mycroft and Harry spooned dough on the hot tray first, then on the room temperature tray. Wills’ timer went off, Siri swapped trays, and Wills reset his timer before hurrying back to watch.

“Hmm,” Wills said. “The dough is certainly softening rapidly, but I wouldn’t call that cooked.”

“Do you think it will bake more quickly, given that it’s warmer?” Harry asked.

“Most likely,” Wills said. “Let’s see.”

The other timer buzzed, Siri removed the trays from the oven, and set the last two trays inside. “Remember the bottom one is the control,” Wills said, then set his timer.

Mycroft and Harry cleaned up their bowl and spoons, and Mycroft lifted the hot cookies to the cooling trays before setting the trays themselves in the kitchen sink to cool and be cleaned, later.

A rustle at the door drew their attention. “My lads, what’s happening here?”

“Mummy!” “Auntie Wanda!” 

Wanda entered the room to see the cooling cookies. “Oh, my. These smell delicious.” She looked around at Sirius. “Sirius. What on earth?”

“We wanted to cheer you up, Auntie Wanda,” Harry said, with a big smile. “We didn’t touch the stove, honest. Mycroft and Wills and I mixed everything up and called Siri to help us with the stove.”

“They acted very responsibly, Wanda,” Sirius assured her. 

“Well, how kind of you, my lads,” Wanda said, smiling widely herself. “These smell divine. I do believe they’d be very tasty with a glass of cold milk about now.”  
“Just two more trays to come out,” Wills assured her. “And then we can help ourselves to warm cookies if you agree.”

“I do agree,” Wanda said, nodding and smiling. “This is a wonderful treat.”

They pulled the last trays out. Siri had swapped them on time, but as hypothesized, the cookies on the hot tray cooked faster and looked darker than the cookies on the room temperature tray.

“And now you know, Harry,” Mycroft said. “And honestly, I know now, too. This has been fascinating.”

Wanda laughed. “Trust you lot to turn baking cookies into a science lesson.”  
“Everything is science, Mummy,” Wills said, importantly.

Wanda laughed, and leaned down to give all her boys kisses, noting absently that Mycroft was nearly as tall as she. 

“Now, get down the good plates,” Wanda said. “And the nice glasses. We shall treat ourselves to warm cookies and cold milk.”

The cookies tasted divine, the perfect blend of chocolate with caramel dough overtones, and Wanda sighed.

“My loves, the kind of love that led you to bake me cookies is the greatest kind of magic,” Wanda said softly. “Science can’t compare.”

“But it can make sure we made them right,” Wills argued, earning himself chuckles from Sirius and Wanda.

“Never change, Wills,” Wanda said. “Thank you, my lads.”

“Oh, one more thing, Auntie Wanda,” Harry said, coming around to face her where she turned. He wrapped his arms around her. “A big hug to make you smile.”

Not only did Wanda smile; her heart overflowed with joy.

  
  



End file.
